Hand-tool



W. A. BERNARD.

HAND TOOL.

APPLICATION FILED APR.26, 1919.

1,385,5 1 6 Patented July 26, 1921.

W In

H HUI UNITED STATES PATENT ori ice.

WILLIAM A. BERNARD, OF NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO THE WILLIAM SGHOLLHORN COMPANY, OF NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, A CORPORATION OF CONNECTICUT.

, HAND-TOOL.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented July 26*, 1921.

Application filed April 26, 1919. Serial No. 292,967.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM A. BERNARD, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city and county of New Haven, State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Hand Tools, of

which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

. This invention relates to an improved hand tool for use in attaching binding wires to packing boxes, barrels, etc. It is now common practice to ship goods in so-called wire-bound containers. A piece of soft iron wire is out to the required length and placed about the container, after which the ends of the wire are fastened together to make a tight fastening. The simplest method of interconnecting the wire ends is to twist them on each other, and tools have been devised for this purpose, but such tools have been difficult to manipulate. In some cases, after the wire has been given a preliminary twist by hand, a tool has been used wherein it was necessary to thread the respective projecting ends of the wire through openings formed in the cooperating pivoted jaws. This is difiicult of accomplishment, especially where the pro jecting ends'are of different lengths and in the tool under discussion, there has been nothing to prevent the tool from slipping off the wire.

The present invention aims to provide a very simple and satisfactory wire twisting tool, which can be handled very; conveniently, and which does very effective work. Another object is to provide a tool which in operation is positively held in proper relation to the wire. V

Another object is to providea very simple tool construction by which the" wire can be twisted 0r wound very uniformly, and with the required closeness, while at the same time avoiding any tendency to bend the wire too sharply which would crystallize the iron and cause the Wire to break or become weakened.

Another object is to provide a tool by which the wire can be grasped very tightly and firmly for pulling or stretching it, and to combine this advantage with the advantages pertaining to the wire twistingfunction, in a very simple tool construction.

' To these and other ends the'invention consists in the novel features and combination of parts to be hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawing,

Figure 1 is a side view of a pair of pliers showing my invention applied thereto;

F 1g. 2 is a side view of the device shown in Fig. 1 with the jaws open;

Fig. 3 is a front end view of the pliers with the jaws in the closed position;

' F 1g. 4 is an enlarged planview of the lower jaw of the pliers; and

Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken on the line 5 5 of Fig. 1 looking in the direction of the arrows.

I have illustrated my invention as applied to the general type of pliers disclosed in my Patent No. 479,113 granted July 19, 1892, although it will be apparent that the invention herein described may be applied to various types of pliers of either the parallel jaw type or the pivoted jaw type, and certain features of the invention may be found useful in hand tools other than pliers.

I have shown in Fig. 1 a fragmentary portion of a box or barrel designated by the numeral 10 about which a wire 11 has been placed to strengthen 0r reinforce the same. The ends of this wire have been partly twisted and the pliers in this figure are shown placed upon these ends in position to continue the twisting of thesame. The pliers I have selected to illustrate my invention may be briefly'described as provided with a pair of handles 12 and 13 pivotally secured together by a screw or bolt 14, the forward ends of these handles being provided with the parallel aws 15 and 16,which are pivotally secured to the forward ends of the handles by the pivot screws 17 and 18 and the rear ends of the j aws are slidably connected to the handles by the pins 19 and 20, the pliers illustrated being provided with the cooperating cutter jaws21 and 22. The construction so far described'forms no part of my invention and is disclosed in my Patent No. 479,113 abo've'mention'ed.

My invention consists in constructing the j aws 15 and 16 so that they will engage and cooperate with the strands of wires to be twisted in the manner hereinafter set forth. In the embodiment illustrated the. forward portions of the jaws 15 and 16 are cut away to formthe registering clearance openings 23' A short distance from the forward ends of the jaws are formed the elongated cooperating notches 25 and 26extending transversely of the jaws15 and 16, respectively, across the entire width of the same, and positioned to receive the angularly disposed untwisted ends 29 and 30 of the wire'upon the substantially flat surfaces formed by said notches. The cooperating clearance openings and notches are so positioned that spaced lugs 27 and 28 are formed upon the upper and lower jaws adjacent the forward ends of the same, positioned to be engaged by the diverging ends of the twisted wire. The adjacent faces 31 of the jawswhich have not been cut away are preferably serrated or knurled, as is customary in order that the wire or other objects may be firmly gripped between these serrated surfaces in the usual manner.

The operation of my device will now be described. When it is desired to twist the ends of the wire together with the device herein described, a preliminary twist is preferably given to the ends of the wire by hand, or otherwise whereupon the pliers may be opened up and the jaws ofthe, same placed over the twisted portion of thewire with the angularly disposed ends of the wire lying within the notches 25 and 26 upon the substantially fiat surfaces formed thereby, and

extending outwardly from the opposite sides of the pliers and with the twisted portions of the wire lying-within the clearance openings 23 and 24. The plier jaws may then be closed upon the wire without firmly gripping the same, since the jaws arecut away so that the pliers may be moved longitudinally of the twisted portion of the wire after the jaws are closed but cannot be pulled off the ends of the wire, due to'the fact that the diverging ends 29 and 30 will butt against the lugs 27 and 28 and limit the longitudinal movement of the pliers relatively to these twisted ends. This arrangement, whereby the pliers may be freely moved longitudinally of the Wire after the jaws are firmly closed without escape from the wire, is desirable because it ermits the plier jaws to travel along the w re as twists are imparted to the same, the clearance openings 23 and 241serving as a guide cooperating with the twisted portion ofthe wire. This construction permits the pliers to be very quickl a and easily positioned upon the angularly disposed portions of the wire that are to be twisted, and during the twisting process a relatively small gripping force applied to the plier handles 12 and 13 will be suflicient to retain the jaws in operative engagement with the wire, since the jaws do not need to be held in clamping engagement with the twisted portions of the wire, but merely held firmly enough to prevent the twist which is .being' imparted to the wire from forcing feature. These grooves allow the angularly disposed ends of the wires to freely feed into the. twists both at the, start and completion the grooves 25 and 26 is also animportant of the twisting operation, by not confining A the same in any especial angle, but allowing 7 these ends to spread with the change of angle. between same duringtwisting. It is obvious that the jtighter the twists the largerthe angle becomes between thev wire ends. It will be apparent that various changes may be made'from the construction herein described without departing from the scope of my invention as defined in the annexed claims, V Y 7 What I claim is:

1. A wire twisting tool having transversely extending'flatj recessed surfaces to engage the angularly disposed projecting ends of a wire so that they may be twisted together, and means extending entirely across in front of the engaging surfaces to retain the projecting ends -of said wire against slippage-from said tool, during the twisting operation. 1 I e 2. A wire twisting hand tool-having jaws cutaway longitudinallyto position said tool 'upon a twisted portion of wire, said jaws also having transverse registering recesses elongated longitudinally of thetool to clear the angularlydisposed ends of the untwisted portion of wire, and fiat surfaces formed by said recesses by which further twisting is accomplished when said tool is turned 7 to project from the tool on opposite sides of said jaws.

4. A wire twisting tool having opposingjaws, said jaws cutaway ata pointbehind their forward extremities to form flat recessed surfaces extending across the jaws to engage angularly disposed wire ends to twist the same, and elongated to allow said wire ends to extend without the tool on either side at widely varying angles.

5. A wire twisting tool having paralleloperating jaws with longitudinal registering clearance openings at their ends and transversely positioned'flat twisting grooves back of the clearance openings.

6. A hand tool for twisting wire ends having opposing jaws and handles for operating same, said jaws being pivotally connected to said handles, said jaws having longitudinally extending registering means at their forward ends to allow a twisted portion of'wire to freely slide through same, and having elongated and recessed regis tering grooves back of said longitudinal means adapted to engage the untwisted ends of a wire and further twist same, said twisting means allowing the ends of the wire to protrude without the tool on opposite sides and extending transversely across said jaws.

7. A hand tool having parallel-operating jaws, said jaws having at their forward portions rounded grooves lying longitudinally, elongated transverse cutaway grooves for twisting two wire ends together, and opposing gripping surfaces located behind said twisting means adapted to grip a wire effectively for pulling or stretching.

- 8. A hand tool having lever operated jaws, said jaws being provided with longitudinal grooves for positioning the twisted portion of two wire ends centrally with said jaws, registering recessed flat surfaces for engaging the projecting wire ends for further twisting, and means extending entirely across said jaws on each side of said longitudinal positioning means and in front of said twisting means to retain said wire ends within said twisting means.

9. A hand tool for twisting wire, having flat opposing jaws, each of said jaws being provided with semi-round grooves extending longitudinally and adapted to register when the jaws are closed, through which the twisted wire may slip without binding, and also provided with longitudinally elongated transverse grooves adapted to register when the jaws are closed and to confine the untwisted wire ends to produce a drag on said wire ends during the operation of twisting, said transverse grooves being the means by which wire is twisted when the tool is turned about its longitudinal axis.

10. A wire twisting hand tool, the jaws of said tool having longitudinal registering grooves therein adapted to freely slide over a twisted portion of wire to position said tool centrally with same, having means ex tending across said tool transversely to retain the untwisted ends of said wire from slipping through said grooves, behind said retaining means also having transversely extending fiat shallow registering recesses adapted to engage the untwisted ends of said wire to twist same and to allow the said ends to extend without the jaws from opposite sides thereof and also having opposing gripping surfaces adapted to grip a wire effectively for pulling or stretching same, said gripping surfaces being located behind said twisting recesses.

11. A wire working pliers having means for gripping wire at the forward end of the jaws, said gripping means constructed to form a straddling means to position a twisted portion of wire, means back of and formed by the gripping and straddling means to prevent the untwisted ends of the wire from slipping through the straddling means, said preventing means extending across the jaws,.means behind the preventing means for engaging the wire ends to further twist same, said engaging means extending across said jaws, and means behind said engaging means to grip wire for pulling or stretching.

12. A wire twisting tool of the plier type having opposing jaws, one of said jaws provided with a longitudinally extending groove and a transversely extending recess, said recess being elongated longitudinally of the tool.

13. In a portable wire working tool, longitudinally extending recessed means for positioning said tool upon a twisted portion of wire, and transversely extending, longitudinally elongated, recessed means for engaging the untwisted wire ends to further twist the same.

14:. A hand tool having a pair of cooperating jaws presenting when in contact an opening wherein a twisted portion of wire is free to slide lengthwise of said jaws and also presenting a transversely extended opening elongated longitudinally of the tool, wherein the untwisted wire ends are engaged to further twist the same.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand on the 24th da of April, 1919.

WILLIAM A. BERNARD. 

